Week 6

When I began my middle school career and began looking forward to high school, my biggest motivation for trying hard in my classes and succeeding academically was to beat my sister. My oldest sister was always being praised for getting good grades in classes and good scores on exams and, five years younger than she, I always thought, "I could do better." So I pushed myself in my course schedule and was very studious and did in fact beat her in most cases. But when I began high school she had just graduated and had decided to study chemical engineering. Fora few years I wasn't sure what field I wanted to study, but it eventually dawned on me that I would study engineering. A large part of it was because I most enjoyed my math and science classes; I loved the definitive quality those studies had and that the answer was always a fact and never subjective. But a vast influence that had followed me through life was a hobby of my fathers. When we first moved to the United States I was five, my dad joined an astronomy club and would sometimes, over the years, take me to lectures there. Basically all of the material was totally over my head but I found it fascinating regardless. I distinctly remember learning a lecture about black holes and how they are not vacuums. This club also rented him these huge telescopes that he would set up in my backyard and he would show me the craters on the moon and the rings of Saturn. I grew up with this love and fascination for space. So I knew I wanted to be an engineer and loved all things space, so Astronautical Engineer seemed apt and I have never doubted my decision.